Summer 2010: Jac

[littlebamf]

Jac messed with the straps of her backpack and looked around the crowded airport a little boredly. God it was crowded…What she wouldn’t give to just run the hell out of the place and have done with it. If it wasn’t for the bags she’d be home quicker than her Dad’d be able to drive, but he insisted in picking her up all the same, as there was no way he’d just come for cases.

Swigging from her bottle of coke, she pocketed the drained bottle to hand to one of the cleaning people that wandered around with the clear plastic bags that served as bins, so no one could plant a bomb. Theoretically anyway…Jac tugged on the trolley she had her two bags and bodyboard strapped to. It had been tempted to bring everything, but she was sure her parents wouldn’t be happy to pay the fee for it again.

It was better being back in England. None of the Act shite had spread over fully yet. She made a sour face as she thought about the poster she’d seen back in JFK. God, getting through customs hadn’t been fun. For a moment she thought they were going to toss a black bag over her head, drag her in a back room, draw a pint of blood and staple her to a metal table. Thankfully, all they’d done was stare at her, stare at her papers, look at her critically and send her off on her way.

Sure, one of the guys on duty had been giving her some funny looks and hadn’t been impressed with the hat, but despite common belief held at uni, it wasn’t glued to her head and she had grudgingly removed it to prove identity. No bloodletting or clubs needed…

Okay, where the hell was her Dad? Jac looked around, scratching her hand through hair in confusion. The hell she could see anyone from her level in the crowd…

“Jackie? Jackie!”

Jac winced. Oh god. Why couldn’t he let that name die? She’d never liked it.

“Hi, Dad…” she muttered, turning around to the voice that was bellowing at her from across the bustling arrivals area.

“Did you have a good flight?” he tried to lean down and give Jac a hug, but she quickly skipped backwards, pretending to be having issues with her bag and trolley. “All checked out and ready to go?”

“Yea, yea flight was alright, y’know? Average…”

David Falsworth sighed a bit. “Do you really need to talk like that all the time now? It doesn’t suit you, Jackie.”

“Jackie doesn’t suit me,” she pouted a little and allowed him to take her trolley. “It was fine. The film was crap though.”

“Peanuts?”

“Seventeen bags…” Jac rubbed the back of her neck. “And pretzels, crisps, rasins, that sort of thing…”

“Still eating for six then?” he smiled over his shoulder at her as they made their way out. Jac gave a nod of her head, stopping at a vending machine to get a bar of chocolate.

“Any…Trouble?” David circled back to wait for his daughter and gave her a worried look. The news coverage had been limited, but what had been broadcast, he and his wife made a point of watching. The situation could be worse, but…it could be better.

“Dad! Y’have to start on it in the middle of the airport?” she ripped the wrapper of her bar open and broke a chunk off, popping it in her mouth. “I don’t have…Can we talk about this in the car?” going in her pocket, she pulled her cap out and shoved it back on her head. She hoped there was no one around who’d know her…

About ten minutes into the car journey, David looked across at Jac, who was fiddling with her mp3 player and eating a bag of wotsits. He gave an inward sigh and wondered, as he occasionally did, if Jac was deliberately a stubborn pain, or just couldn’t help it as it was a natural defence she had developed over the years of being small, being a tomboy…being a mutant.

“So…Was there any trouble?” he asked, leaning over to tug on of her earphones out by the cord.

Looking across at him, Jac frowned and started to nibble on the cord slightly. “Y’don’t give up or nothing’, do ya?”

“English, Jacqueline…”

Rolling her eyes, Jac thumped her head against the back of the carseat. “Alright, alright. It was fine. No one thought I was suspicious, no one stopped me, searched me other than normal customs checks. They can’t do much of anything yet anyways. Registration is still voluntary. I was leaving at any rate so they’re not going to care what I am…”

“Well, you’re going to have to go back…Unless you decide to go here. You could go to Lincoln, stay near home…”

“Oh you must be joking! What’s the point of going to uni if you stay at home?” Jac started to pick her nails distractedly. “I’ll think of something. My visa is still good so, that might cover it and I can just get back in. Bat me eyelashes a bit.”

“Mmm…” David didn’t sound too convinced and pulled her earphone out when he noticed she’d put it back in. “Now come on, when was the last time I saw you?”

“Less than a month ago when you and Mother turned up for that idiotic family day…”

“Oh come now! It wasn’t that idiotic! It was nice to meet all your friends. It’s good you have friends over there. And I’d like to know where you’re living, what your teachers are like…” he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel lightly and started to play with the radio, settling on the classical station.

“Oi! I can’t listen to my music, yet you’re tormenting me with yours? That ain’t on! And…course I got friends. What, you thought I’d be sat in a corner alone?”

“Well, no, but I know how much you like all your friends here. Oh! Talking of which, I saw Peter Jayson the other day.”

“Jase? Oh?” Jac sat up, her interest well and truly hooked.

“Oh yes, saw him near the supermarket. Was with that little Jessica Brown. You remember? You went -”

“Yes, I went to school with her and she was a bloody nightmare the cow. I know who she is Dad,” Jac shot him a murderous glance.

“Oh…You didn’t get on?” David looked at her a little worriedly and started to fiddle with the radio volume nervously as he saw the expression on her face.

“Not at all. In any way. There were fights. Cross words. Acts of vengeance-”

“Alright, I get the idea, Jackie,” David waved his hand. “You won’t like it that I told them you were coming home today…”

“DAD! This was the girl I got suspended for two days for that row for!”

“What? I can’t keep up with all your dramas. I know Peter is your friend, so I told him. And if I remembered all the reasons for why you’ve been in trouble over the years, then I wouldn’t be able to remember anything else.”

“Well he already knew cause I myspaced him and the others about it!” Jac responded, thumping the side of the carseat roughly, annoyed at his admonishment about her past behaviour. Yeah she was no princess but she didn’t need him to remind her that.

“Jacqueline! How am I supposed to know that?” David growled as they slowed in a queue of traffic. He looked at his daughter out of the corner of his eye and shook his head. Oh he had a slight sense of tiredness already and she hadn’t been back for more than two hours at most.

Jac shrugged and slouched down in the carseat. Ooooh this was going to suck. She knew Maxxie had been holding something back when she’d called her the other day to say about coming home, but this? You’d think someone would have warned her…

“Oh and your mother went clothes shopping for you, by the by,” David decided to slide in, seeing as she was already sulking enough to not get any more moody. “Got you some new skirts and a dress or two.”

Giving her father a withering look, Jac closed her eyes and plugged her earphones back in. Something told her this summer wasn’t going to be wonderful.

[steyn]

Funny, I just don't see Jac much of a dress person.

edit:

Kind of like slarti, only with more flames

[Edited on 14/10/2008 by steyn]

[Slarti]

Oi! Actually, I own rather a lot of dresses...

And what's a wotsit?

[littlebamf]

Cheesy puff snack.

And, just because she's been bought dresses, doesn't mean she actually will wear them

[littlebamf]

“Jackie!”

Jac blinked a bit. God she’d only just got in the bloody front door…”Alright Mum,” she allowed herself to be swooped upon and dragged into a crushing hug, making a series of faces before half patting her mother’s back as a hint for her to get off her. What was with this huggy stuff? Seriously!

“Aww, I’ve missed you! How was the flight poppet?” she cooed and wrapped an arm around Jac’s shoulders, tugging her off towards the kitchen. “Now I bet you’re hungry so I went shopping earlier and got you some crisps and mini rolls and some penguins and those microwave pizzas you like, now…”

But Jac’s attention was long gone, more focused on getting hold of all this convenience food, that her mother was normally so reluctant to buy. Wriggling free, she dived at the cupboard in the kitchen where the snacks were kept, the second they were in the room and began burrowing through its contents.

“…and Mr Bradshaw was saying how the sports hall isn’t the same without you, when I last saw him. Oh! And you know it’s your cousin, April’s birthday next week so I’ve bought you a dress or two for the party as you know your Aunt likes things nice like that, I did ask your father to let you know,” Connie started to pat Jac on the head as she rooted around in the cupboard.

“I know, fat chance I’m wearing that fu-flaming thing…” she muttered in response, staring balefully at the back of the cupboard. The faint sound of the front door banging shut made her jump. Oh that’d be her stuff in. So maybe in a sec she could make a break for it to ‘unpack’ then leg it out of her window to see everyone before her parents noticed she was gone.

“Jacqueline! I rather hope this isn’t how you’re going to be speaking for your holidays! Really, what sort of school is this?”

“Jehovah’s Witnesses den of crack y’mean…” she muttered and ripped into a packet of Cadbury mini rolls.

“What was that?” Connie blinked, hoping she hadn’t heard what she thought. Crack? Oh no. Oh no. She was afraid this day would come…She just hoped she’d kept that magazine on how to deal with your addicted children…

“Just the usual sort of school…Maths, English, Geography, all that, it’s...cracking good fun, Mum!” Jac replied brightly. Oh hell. Maybe she shouldn’t have used that word twice. Eying Connie innocently, she stuffed a whole roll into her mouth and grinned as her father came in and tossed him a mini roll as she was feeling generous.

Blinking, he caught it, muttered a thank you and wandered over towards the kettle. “Anyone fancy a cuppa?” he asked, pottering about with some cups.

“My bags upstairs?” Jac asked and started to slope towards the doorway.

“Yes, but-”

Jac was already gone, a trail of flames dancing on the flagstone floor. David sighed. “But it might be nice if you sat down for five minutes and had a chat and everything but no. Oh well. She’s probably up there, right now, setting light to those dresses.”

Glancing upwards at the ceiling, Connie shook her head. “Oh, I have them put away, she won’t find them.”

Getting out the teapot, David smiled a little at his wife. “You did say that the week before her fifteenth birthday, when you hid those skates in the attic and she put her foot through the bathroom ceiling…”

“Which is exactly why they’re at my sister’s house.”

~~~~

Nibbling on her sixth mini roll, Jac unzipped her case and commenced in littering her clothes around the vague area of the laundry basket that had been thoughtfully left out for her. A quick search of her wardrobe and drawers, told her that there were no skirts in there and no dresses. Couple of new tshirts, which were plain, so they were alright…She just wished she bloody knew where her mother had put them.

Yawning a little, she rubbed her face and flopped on the freshly made bed. God she hated getting tired…and she hadn’t really slept for about thirty hours, as her flight had been early, so she hadn’t bothered going to bed, and she’d been up early the day before that and she couldn’t sleep on planes…And she just confused herself.

Ignoring the fact she’d dumped some clothes that hadn’t needed washing on the bed, Jac fell backwards and spread out. Oh it was so bloody nice to have a room to herself again. She wasn’t sure if she’d get used to sharing a room.

Sitting up after a few minutes, she scrunched up the packet the rolls had come in and tossed it away and hunted for a cleanish shirt to change into. Right that was enough resting at home time. Beach time!

Looking up from his newspaper on the sofa, David sighed as he saw Jac charging down the stairs. She was wearing shorts and flip flops.

“I suppose you’re off to the beach then, young lady…” he dug into his pocket and pulled out a twenty pound note, holding it up. “Don’t tell you mother, and be back for dinner.”

Pokceting the note, Jac beamed and rubbed her father’s bald patch. “Taa Dad!” she gave a careful glasnce in the direction of the kitchen. “Is-”

“Go on, quick, she’s watering the tomato plants,” David swatted at Jac’s side with the paper. “Just don’t get into any trouble!” he yelled, as she started to move. She’d probably be on the beach before he said anything else, so he went back to the paper.

“I won’t! Promise!”

Famous last words…David thought. Famous last words…

[tears~fall~like~glass]

hee! good job, Lil. ...Though now I have Famous Last Words stuck in my head.

[Ferguson]

[quote]
“What was that?” Connie blinked, hoping she hadn’t heard what she thought. Crack? Oh no. Oh no. She was afraid this day would come…She just hoped she’d kept that magazine on how to deal with your addicted children…
[/quote]

HA! HAHA! Oh God, that made my day right there.

[steyn]

LOL, very fun read. Love how Mom thouoght about hiding the dress at her sister's place.

[littlebamf]

The next few weeks passed as usual in the normally quiet seaside town. Jac was rather pleased to find that life hadn’t changed all that much. Her friends had been a little strange at first, but soon that faded and things carried on as ever.

Martin, her best friend since they had started Queen Elizabeth’s together at the age of eleven, was the same as always however and amiable too, which was fortunate as he soon found himself dragged off to Lincoln, the nearest city, for Jac to get her new skates. She could have got them back in the States, but she was far too dedicated to that shop to use anywhere else.

The beach generally avoided tourists, who generally stuck to Skegness down to coast, or even Cleethorpes a little way north. So, Jac and friends were normally able to claim large patches to themselves, morning, noon, and night, mainly as the locals knew better than to try and move them on any more as they did spend an incredible amount in the seafront cafes.

Jac liked the beach. Almost as much as the nearby skatepark. Running along the beach was usually fun and if she did it at the right time of day, quiet. Which, alright, noise was better, but putting your foot in a picnic, sandcastle, toddler or pile of dogshit wasn’t that fun.

So, early morning and night runs were on the agenda, day in, day out, rain or shine and let’s face it, its England. There’s lots of pissing rain.

~~~~

“Bored…”

“What d’you wanna do then?”

“I dunno. What do you want to do?”

“What do you want ta do?”

“Well that do you want to actually do?”

“I dunno-”

“Oh for fucks sake shut the fucking fuck up! You lot sound like the bloody vultures off Jungle Book!”

Jac looked up and blinked at Claire. “Never seen it…”

“Oh don’t lie! You can’t not have seen it! It’s Disney!”

Maxxie rubbed his face and rolled over in the sand, giving a grand sweeping gesture towards Jac. “And this is Jac. Have you met? She’s not really up on the whole Disney thing.”

“But – it’s Disney! There’s a singing bear in it! And a tiger! And monkeys!”

“Annnnd it’s chuffing Disney! I’m not wasting my time watching that!” Jac flopped on her back and scratched her stomach, pulling her top up a little to get a proper scratch.

“Oh you got pierced and you didn’t show me a photo?” Claire suddenly screamed, making Maxxie jump and swallow a mouth of sand. Martin glanced up as well, casting a glance over at Jac’s midriff. “Oh. Shiny.”

“Yeah, well, that’s so…Girlyposermyspacemirrorphonepic cheese!”

“…You’re doing the speed talking again, luv…” Maxxie commented, trying to get the sand out of his mouth by rinsing and spitting lots of coke.

Twitching her cap, she gave them an endearing smile. “Sorry? Ugh. I’m hungry…”

“Get some chips then. You’ve only had three bags from the stand so far.”

“Nah, fancy something different. Maccies, maybe…” Jac knelt up, looking around thoughtfully. Cheeseburger would be good. About six would do…

“Ah, you just want a Happy Meal so you can play with the toy…” Claire laughed a little, flicking some sand at her.

“Well. You could run down to Skeggy, go to the one down there and get us all something. It’s only take you about fifteen minutes there and back with ordering and everything.”

Jac started to count on her fingers, then gave Martin a look. “Eh…I’ll take your word for it. Been ages since I ran there, so tempting…”

“Just don’t try and bring a milkshake back this time. You had cats following you for hours!” Maxxie laughed and gave her arm a deft punch. Jac kicked out at him in return and gave a snicker. “Yeah, true. Need something to put the drinks in. And for us to all drink the same…Near enough the same anyway.”

“Oooh. Sprite and coke mixed might be lush!”

Jac wrinkled her nose at Claire’s suggestion. “Maybe not. Like, chocolate an’ strawberry milkshake might go good.”

“Go good? Christ Jac, Mrs Hedley would slaughter you if she heard you these days.”

Jac batted her eyelashes. “Oh, I do try. Right, anyone want owt? I’ll forget the drinks this time though,” she held her hand out for money.

“For you to take me so I can see you order ten Happy Meals and drink all the coke at the counter. But seriously, a Big Mac and some large fries will do,” Maxxie tossed her a fiver.

“Biggest box of chicken nuggets they do and four things of barbecue sauce. Oh, and no – don’t worry about it – wait, actually -”

“I’ll just have some medium fries and a bottle of water,” Claire rolled her eyes at Martin’s indecisiveness and passed Jac two pound coins.

“I think…”

“Can’t you get the water from here?” Jac thumbed over her shoulder to the row of stores and cafes just visible in the distance.

Claire rolled her eyes and lay down on her beach towel. “Involves moving…Not an option.”

“Lazy cow!”

“No. I’ll just have the nuggets, the sauce and…Extra large fries. Yeah.”

Taking Martin’s money, Jac zipped all the money, including her own, into one of her shorts pockets. She always tried to buy bottoms that had at least one zippable pocket for times such as this.

“Right, back in a tick…” she doffed her cap to them and trotted off for the cover of the dunes to start her run.

“…She wonder where Jase is?” Maxxie asked after a few minutes of blessed silence.

“Nah. She knows what’s going on. She told me her Dad told her he saw Jase with bloody Jessica…” Martin muttered, returning to his graphic novel.

“Niiice. Expect fireworks when Jessy dearest gets back from Turkey and Jase comes out of moping.”

“Oh shit. Jessy and Jase. Never clocked that one!”

“Maxxie, you don’t clock anything unless it has long hair, nice tits and an ass that could launch a thousand ships…”

“Christ you two are chauvinists. Remind me why the hell I hang out with you?” Claire joked, sitting up to rub some more sun cream on her arms.

“Because you absolutely love it. And we need the female insights. Jac’s no use at that. She’s as female as me,” Maxxie beat his chest caveman style and hopped to his feet. “Right, going to get a couple of big coke bottles before she returns.”

“Not cider? She’ll cry all night. Seriously, that’s all she ever goes on about when she’s on msn, is how she can’t get ‘proper’ cider in America.”

“Nah. Not got enough for cider. Got some cans at my place anyways if we head over, but coke’ll do for now.”

“Get me some chuddy?” Claire tossed him a fifty pence coin.

“You get through ten packs a week…” Maxxie shook his head as he wandered off.

A few minutes later, Maxxie was ripping open a pack of plastic cups for the coke, when Jac wandered back, with two large McDonalds paper carrier bags. “Right!”

She tossed one of the bags at her friends and sat down with the other one. “Change is in there with a receipt. Work it out yourselves…” her attention was taken up by rummaging in her own bag.

“I swear...That much’d kill a yak, the amount of fat and cholesterol…”

“I thought mind bullets killed yaks…”

Jac laughed, double cheeseburger in hand. “Hah! Talking of that, there is someone at school who does that.”

“Kill’s yaks with mind bullets? They have yaks in New York? Sweeet.” Maxxie and Martin both looked at each other, impressed.

“Well, dunno if she kills yaks, but her power has mind bullets and all that. Funny, that looks like her,” Jac gestured to the back of the magazine Claire was browsing through.

The friends glanced at the magazine, then at Jac.

“Nah, now you’re going too far…”

[tears~fall~like~glass]

LOL! Oh, that's great!

at McDonald's though. I think I cringe whenever Jac mentions it.

[littlebamf]

“Are you…Caressing those skates?” Maxxie asked dubiously as he took a seat next to Jac, who was surrounded by open boxes of skates. She obviously had found some she liked…

“Eh…Maybe a little?” she grinned at him. Martin came over with a couple of helmets and put them down next to her.

“There. Little Miss I Can’t Reach. Happy?”

“Welll, if ya buy me lunch I’ll be happy!”

“You had lunch.”

“Nah. That was elevenses.” Jac put the skates down to try a helmet on.

“Oh, the meal after second breakfast?” Maxxie knocked on top of the helmet and gave her a light shove. “No wonder you’re always scrounging off us. No way you could afford to eat else.”

“The real reason her parents sent her off to school. They don’t have to pay her feed bill, what with that scholarship she got!”

“Ooh! It all makes sense!” Maxxie declared, swearing as Jac elbowed him roughly in the ribs.

“Shut up about that, willya? No need to fuckin’ announce it!” she hissed, dragging the helmet off her head.

“Sorry…” He rubbed his ribs a little. “I’m hardly saying that it’s-”

“Pack it in!” Jac yelled, throwing the helmet back in the box.

“Oi! Now…So…Where’d you get the money for these?” Martin asked, plucking her new skates out of her lap to get a better look.

“Oh. Jason. He wrecked my old ones so I made him pay for the new ones. Least that’s the official story. He had help and he had help payin’ me back…”

Giving her the skates, he glanced at the helmets. “So, you going to get one or just get the skates?”

“Dunno. Might get some new shorts instead. My helmet’s still pretty good, an’ this place does internet orders so I can always get stuff delivered…I hope?” her nose twitched a little.

“You? Buy clothes? You always wear the same jeans in winter and the same shorts in summer no matter what you have!”

“Nah I don’t!” Jac shoved Martin off the bench and got up, holding on to her new skates tightly. Nooo way she was letting these out of her sight. Not after what happened to the old pair. They still smelt funny, but she just couldn’t toss them out…

Chewing her lip, she looked down at the new ones. Really, all she needed was new boots for the old skates, but the frame had been a bit wrecked, wheels scuffed from just being tossed in a closet then falling out and…Yeah. It was easier to just replace them, plus she wouldn’t feel bitter every time she used them that they weren’t ‘the same anymore’ as they were brand new ones.

“You should at least buy a belt…I don’t care what you think, you need a new one.”

Turning to look at Maxxie a little perplexed, he leant down and patted Jac on the head. “Nice orange shorts.”

“…OI!” she yelped, yanking her jeans up by the back, awkwardly making her way to the counter, yelling at the long suffering sales assistant to get her a belt as well.

Following her to the counter after putting the helmets back, Martin gave her a sideways glance as she paid up for her things. God she was making him nervous…

“So…”

“So?” she looked around at him, taking her bags from the cashier, fiddling with her ever present cap.

“Eh…” he glanced around for the moral support of Maxxie, who gave him an evil look in reply, shaking his head. “Time for food next I guess?”

Jac gave Martin a funny look. “Yeah, didn’t we decide that already?”

“Course we did!” Maxxie decided it was the best moment to join them and gave a grin. “Where to? Chippie?”

“Sounds good! Never get ‘em over there in America. Dunno if they know what a chippie is, well, Namor didn’t, don’t think Bobby did, Jason don’t, Lorna looked puzzled…eh. Chippie it is then?”

“Chippie it is then,” Maxxie pushed her out of the door and looked at Martin. “Can’t we just wait til she’s sat down, in public, without anything lethal in her hands?”

“Good point but the longer we leave off telling her, the madder she’ll be at us.”

“Well we didn’t do anything, she can’t be that mad at us…” Maxxie said doubtfully, heading out of the door before Jac came in to drag them.

“Yeah. That’s the point. We didn’t do anything…”

“Oh like you can shut Jase up when he’s had a skinfull. She knows that! It’d have come out anyway with that bint about, drunken times or not…”

“What’re you two muttering about? Planning the engagement?” Jac quipped, turning around and walking backwards to look at them, half stumbling on the cobbled streets of Lincoln.

“Oh nothing – lamppost! – just talking about stuff. You out tonight?”

“Maybes,” Jac kept her attention over her shoulder having narrowly missed the post. “Think the ‘rents want me to stay in. They miss me or something stupid. Mam’s even taken loads of time off work, which is like, weird.”

“Aww, it’s sweet! Maybe she wants to go back with you to America and take you on Maury and get you girlified!”

“The amount of daytime television you watch is almost as scary as the range. Last week it was Miami Ink, before that it was Jeremy Kyle, then it was Midsomer Murders, Firefly that time it was on Sci Fi-”

“You were the one watching that! I just joined in!” Maxxie protested. “Anyways, not my fault I’m having difficulties finding employment before I give myself over to the perils of university. And to think I could have gone yak herding in Outer Mongolia…”

“You two’re making me jealous!” Jac sighed a bit, bumping her bags against her legs. “And me? Girly? Hah! Sod that for a laugh!”

“Nice of you to catch up with the conversation speedy,” Martin gave a wry smile as they turned into the street their destination was on. “You having your usual?”

~~~~~

Fifteen minutes, three very large portions of fish and chips, two cans of coke, one can of sprite, two pickled eggs, one jumbo sausage and two large tubs of mushy peas, an extra portion of chips, lashings of salt and vinegar and a nice, grassy bank away, the three friends settled down.

Jabbing at her chips with a plastic fork, Jac was silent for a few minutes, before conversationally enquiring. “So…Why’re you all acting like Jase doesn’t exist nowadays?”

Martin and Maxxie traded uncomfortable glances. “Well…”

“Well, there’s no real reason to talk, is there? He’s busy, you know he’s busy, you hate the cause of the business, so…why would you want us to be dissecting all the gory details of his current fixation. Y’know what Jase is like. He’ll soon have watched Thundercats or Transformers cartoons one too many times so Jessica’ll swank off to find some boring tosspot and we welcome Jase back, make his life hell, humiliate him and laugh at his expense…” Maxxie paused to take a swig of his sprite. “You know the score. It’ll be back to the old ways before you know it.”

“But I don’t get why no one has even said his name!”

“Because we didn’t want you, on hearing it, complaining what a wanker he is, what a ‘rat-faced bitching gonorrhoea ridden whorebag’ she is. I know you like complaining but after hearing cumbucket and fucker-doodle Barbie bandied about once too often just takes off the effect of your little rages…” Martin insightfully pointed out, eating his pickled egg.

Jac stared at them both blankly. “Oh, well fine. Y’know, you could’ve at least asked if I was going to do that. Or just tried saying his name…Bloody insulting otherwise…” she muttered over her food, stabbing at the sausage before stuffing it in her mouth.

“No wonder you don’t have a boyfriend…That’s about the most unsexy way I’ve ever seen someone eat a phallic foodstuff.”

Scowling at Maxxie with part of the sausage hanging out of her mouth, Jac bit down sharply, the meat falling back on top of the chips, smirking as both boys winced.

“You’re foul. If your mother doesn’t take you on Maury, then I will!”

Poking her tongue out around half chewed sausage at him, Jac internally rolled her eyes. That hadn’t taken long to get off the subject of Jase, though really she shouldn’t be surprised. Admittedly, she did have a temper…She did hate Jessica…She did miss hanging out with Jase…

Ah well. If it kept them happy. After all, really, what was the worst that could happen?

[Ferguson]

Dun dun dunnnn

Oh man, I laughed hard. ><

[tears~fall~like~glass]

Oh, you'd think I would've learned not to eat and read...

[steyn]

That was so good. I laaaaaughed.

[littlebamf]

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Maxxie looked around the living room doubtfully as he arranged cans of ciders and beers by brand, counting up the bottles of alcohol a little way down the tabletop.

“Not really…” Martin sighed, wondering if there was a point to putting out snacks, other than Jac would eat them. All of them. “Remind me why I got talked into this…”

“Because your parents went to Spain two days ago and aren’t back for another week. If the house gets trashed that’s plenty of time to go about fixing it!” Claire came in, a bottle of lemonade for mixing under each arm.

“Oh hooray. So if some tosser posts this on myspace, it’ll be fine as it’ll all have blown over by the time Mum and Dad get back.”

Wandering in after Claire, hugging a crate of cider to her chest, Jac dumped it on one of the sofas. “Oh boo hoo. No one’ll trash the place. Your Dad’s a copper. They wouldn’t dare trash the house of the guy who came and gave us the ‘Drugs Are Evil. You Will Die’ chat in year eight. Y’ever see Joanna cry so much?”

Martin rolled his eyes a bit. “You think that’d stop some people? Fat chance! Oh god. Why did I let you talk me into this…” he groaned, rubbing his face.

“Because we bought this little lot,” Jac patted her cider, gesturing to the rest of the supplies as well. “An’ we ain’t had a party for ages. With me anyways so you bloody owe me as I know you’ve had loads here. I see facebook there y’know!”

“Fine. Fine. I know you’ll only whine and whine and whine and I swear you better help me clean up in the morning…” he muttered.

“Of course I will! Have I ever lied ta you?” Jac looked up, making puppy eyes.

“Yes. Lots of times,” Martin responded flatly.

“Aww, they’re so cute when they argue!” Maxxie suddenly broke in, much to Claire’s amusement. Jac and Martin both shot Maxxie a look and then looked back at each other.

“Look! I’ll help clean up, honest! And why aren’t ya asking them to help too?” she gestured over at their spectators. “I demand equality! Else ya won’t see me for flames!”

“Oh they’re bloody well helping too!” Martin nodded firmly.

A few hours later, the house was brimming with noise, sweaty teenagers and enough alcohol, coca cola and red bull to fill a smallish but reasonably sized swimming pool. Music was pounding, and so were the floors. And a bed here and there, but that’s another matter.

Martin was stood just outside of the sliding patio doors, watching the people who had brought and assembled a water slide on the gentle slope in the back garden that led into a paddling pool of beer. He thanked himself mentally for the fact his mother had decided against getting a swimming pool due to the Lincolnshire climate not quite matching Spain’s. She’d only thought of it, as the Henderson’s down the road had installed one, much to local envy.

Jac ran past, clad in a pair of his board shorts (hers were currently in the bath, soaking in some water as they’d gotten covered in a mixture of takeaway curry, cider and blackcurrant and Ben and Jerrys ice cream) and a bright orange bikini top. And wearing a helmet…Oh god.

“Jac…?” he called hesitantly after her as she ran up the bank of the lawn towards the slide.

“Got it!” Maxxie came out of the doors, carrying an old plastic sledge. “We will both fit on there, right?”

“I ain’t takin’ chances!” Jac yelled, knocking on top of her helmet. Maxxie joined her, rapping on it himself.

“Mean! Be brave! C’mon!” he tugged at it and she relented, letting him unstrap it and toss it to someone in the waiting crowd.

“I don’t think I can watch this…” Martin muttered to Claire as she joined him, holding three bottles and looking put out.

“Yeah. You can’t look away though, can you? Like road kill. Want to bet on any broken bones? Any other breakages?”

“Don’t even say it…Please.”

Claire snickered and took a swig from one of the bottles, making a face as she realised it was the wrong drink. “Ugh. Budweiser. But yea, you know something’ll happen. Something will break. Just be glad your parents don’t collect garden gnomes or they’d be Blair Witched or something and left dangling from trees in the woods.”

“That I could deal with. This is unnerving me slightly.”

“Here. Have a drink. Just not my WKD.”

Glancing at her armful, he took the bud, taking a long drink. Jac and Maxxie were doing something with the garden hose. It looked like they were applying a showerhead…

The hose was now being passed to one of their other friends, Rich, who was aiming it at the slide, gleefully shaking it about to get as much of it covered as possible. Maxxie was waving the sledge about near the edge of the slide.

“Mind out you two! Please?” Martin called again, totally aware they weren’t listening. Oh well. At least he could say he’d tried.

Maxxie finally dropped the sledge at the top of the slide and put one foot on it, gesturing at Jac who jumped on his back, throwing them both forward down the slide at a rather uncomfortable speed, dragging most of the plastic with them as they went. They rocketed into the paddling pool and everything went flying a few feet down the garden, the pair landing awkwardly on the ground, with the sledge wedged painfully between them and the paddling pool on top of them, drenching them both in a mix of beer, water, and washing up liquid which had been added to the slide at some point to make things so quicker.

“Well. It could have been worse,” Claire giggled at the end image, swigging away at her alcopop. “Least they didn’t break anything.”

“Oh no. They’re just in the middle of the bloody flowerbed…” Martin sighed as he watched Jac sit up, putting a plant out from between her boobs. “Don’t suppose you know your way round a trowel, do you?” he asked Claire beseechingly, giving her a rather pathetic look. She laughed, knocking her bottle against his claimed one.

“Like, don’t give such a shit til the morning! Have fun! It’s your party! Just don’t worry about it til then!”

“…You’re drunk.”

“I know! So should you be!” Claire poked her tongue out at him and wandered off in a wavering line to stand over the flowerbed and laugh at Jac and Maxxie who were covered in beery, soapy mud.

Martin shook his head and finished the bottle, turning to go inside to get another. The feeling of great responsibility or not, he had to be somewhat drunk to deal with this.

Minutes later, there was a loud howl and Martin wandered back out of the windows to see Rich chasing Jac and Maxxie with his weird power shower hose. He blinked. Well. Least that’d get rid of the mud.

Jac pelted off, trying to hide behind a shrub, but only got sprayed through it. Squeaking at the ice cold water, she dashed off towards the shed. “Noooooooo! Pleeease no!”

“I thought you liked water Jackie!”

“Don’t bloody call me that!” Jac did a quick about turn and dived at Rich, tackling him over. They fell in a heap, but he managed to keep hold of the hose and turned it down the back of her shorts. Screaming, she flailed out a little, trying to get him off.

Maxxie had remained unscathed and had made it back to the house to watch in amusement. “You seen my beer?” he asked Claire, who had found the doorway again and was looking very unsteady. She looked at Martin, who realised what she’d done, sighed inwardly and shook his head. “No, can’t say I have…”

He looked up to see several drunk teenagers gathered around the barbeque stack, looking very puzzled as it wouldn’t seem to light.

“Think we should point out it’s wet?” he asked Maxxie, who shrugged and pointed at Jac who was being dragged backwards up the garden by her feet, by Rich and Chris, another old schoolfriend.. “Think we should point out she’ll kill them?”

“Nah. If they haven’t learnt by now, I don’t think they will…Oh god look at the grass! It’s churned! Churned”

“Christ when did you get so old!” Claire gawked at him and fell over. She’d been going to lean against the edge of the sliding door, but it was sadly the wrong side to lean on, as it slid all the way open and left her with nothing to balance on.

Maxxie blinked down at his floored friend, then looked up at the grass. “Ah. The water’ll do it good.”

“Can’t say the same for the beer. Or Jac’s back. Or…God I need another drink.”

Claire held up her bottle, thumping it against Martin’s leg. Looking down at her, he rolled his eyes. “I’m not desperate, Claire.”

She shrugged and tipped the bottle towards the general direction of her mouth, missing and getting a large amount of bright blue liquid down her top. “Ah well…”

There was a yell from the top of the garden. Jac had now gotten hold of the hose and was chasing after Rich and Chris with it, spraying them, herself, a curious cow looking in from the field behind, the shed…well, everything.

Maxxie snorted Budweiser everywhere. “Did she just get the fuckin’ cow? Oh, oh ten points for that Jackie! TEN POINTS!”

Jac’s head turned at an incredible speed and she set her attention on them, coming at them with the hose.

“Jac…No…No…Not in the house! NOT IN THE HOUSE!” Martin screamed, waving his arms to try and stop her. She crashed into him and the crumpled to the floor, on top of the still floored Claire.

“…Wow.”

“Maxxie, stop being a wanker and help us up!”

“But this is too amusing!” he looked down at them, an evil grin on his face, sidestepping the drink sloshed in his direction.

Back on the other side of the windows, there was a crash and a ripping sound. Martin scrambled up to see one of the curtains falling off the rail, wrapping around someone he wasn’t sure if he knew or not.

“…Crap.”

“Aw, don’t worry! Got it!” Jac, muddied, smelling of beer and lemon fairy liquid, scrambled to her feet and chased back in through the doors, whipping the curtain from around the semi strange person.

“Jac…”

“I’ve got it!” she slung it over her shoulder, hopped up on the arm of a chair that was sort of near the door and leapt at the rail, grabbing on and dangling for a moment before pulling herself up a little, trying to lean against the pole that after losing one curtain was sloping slightly to the left.

“JAC!”

“…oh shit…” she whimpered as she heard a cracking. Seconds later, the pole fully detached from the wall and came away from the wall rather forcefully, propelling Jac towards the coffee table. She landed with a crash, right in the middle of it. There was a second, a silence, a creak, and it gave way under the force of her landing.

“Owww…”

“I’m never having a fucking party again!” Martin sat on Jac’s launch pad chair arm, head in hands. Claire rolled in and grinned up at him.

“Can you smell smoke?”

The barbeque crowd had finally figured out how to set light to the stack with the aid of a nearby small cherry tree. And, as the old Buffyism goes, Fire Bad, Tree Pretty.




[Edited on 23-10-08 by littlebamf]

[Ferguson]

Oh dear...

Now that's what I call a party foul.

[tears~fall~like~glass]

That was fantastic...

[steyn]

This is like some kindd of teen movie

[littlebamf]

Jac scratched her shoulder and flopped back in the armchair, glowering a little. She. Was. Wearing. A. Dress. Not a happy day. The rest of the family were sitting around the living room, chattering away. Her mother swung into the room, carrying a tray, followed by her aunt who had a tray of cakes. Licking her lips, Jac leant forward to grab one, but had her hand tapped away from it by her aunt, Erica.

“Now now! You’ve had enough to eat today Jackie!” she reprimanded. Scowling just a touch, she slouched back, cakeless. Well it was her aunts house, so it would be rude to take one…Sort of. Seeing as her aunt didn’t know she needed the food.

“Do you take sugar, Jackie dear?” Connie, Jac’s mother asked as she poured out the tea. Jac made a face at the request.

“I ain’t ever had sugar in me tea!” she sulked. Typical. The others had gone to Skegness for the day to wind up the tourists and she’d gotten dragged to Alford to party plan for her cousin’s birthday. Or at least that was the ruse and it was actually some sort of bizarre family tea party. Since when her family had been so damn social she didn’t know.

“Jacqueline! It’s ‘I have never taken sugar in my tea.’ Goodness knows why you haven’t learnt to speak properly yet. I’d rather hoped you’d get out of that awful way of speaking at university,” she rolled her eyes at Erica, tutting in an overdramatic way. Erica sighed and Jac’s cousins broke into snickers on the sofa and went back to pouring over their PSP, which was causing quite a fight.

Draping herself over the arm of her armchair, she propped her head on the arm of her father’s chair, right angled from her own. “Daaaad. Do I have to be here?” she whined a bit in a half whisper so she wouldn’t be heard by her mother. “I’m bored.”

Sighing, David patted her head. “You’re always bored, Jac. And yes, you do. We’ve not seen much of you this summer, and what with you off at school, we’ve hardly seen you all year. So, just try and not sulk, please? It’d mean a lot to your mother.”

“Alright…Alright,” she rubbed her forehead and sat up, picking at the skirt of her dress distastefully. Sodding thing. She’d damn well better get something out of this…like one of those cakes…Her eyes glossed over a touch as she looked at them longingly.

Her father gave her a wry look and rolled his newspaper up and gave her a warning swat on the head.

“Oi!” she yelped, rubbing her head, making yet another face. David rolled his eyes and reached into his pocket, pulling his wallet out.

“Jac, dear, would you go to the shop for me? Get me some cigarettes and steak crisps, there’s a good girl,” he passed her a ten pound note with a smile.

“Bloody horrible habit,” she stood up, pocketing the note. At least the dress had a pocket, probably because her mother feared if she was given anything, she’d shove it down her chest.

“Jacqueline! Don’t speak like that to your father! Though…she has a point. I thought you were quitting, David,” Connie sniffed a little. “Oh, go on then. Just don’t be long.”

“I won’t!” Jac was already at the front door. Shutting the door behind her, she heard a few tuts and groans and mutterings. Like she could care less. Feeling a little awkward in her dress, she wandered down the garden path and into the little street. Alford was such a small town, it was basically one big road, with a few, smaller roads branching off it, that had even smaller lanes branching off those roads. Everywhere pretty much led to the same place and there was nowhere to hide.

On a whim, she turned right, heading up her aunt’s road until she hit West Street. Pausing, she pondered turning right for the shops, especially that damn good sweetshop on the corner opposite the car place, or left to take a nose at her old school. There was always the garage further up from the school and now she wasn’t a pupil there, she wasn’t banned (for once nothing to do with her, but some idiots from a few years above who’d been shoplifting every other day for two months until they got expelled).

Something, maybe nostalgia, was pulling her towards the school. It wasn’t as if it would be open or anyone there apart from possibly a caretaker doing some maintenance, or a teacher picking up some book or other…

She turned left. The short walk was on the shady side of the road, which was welcome as it had turned into a hot day. Maybe after a look at the place, she could turn back and head for that sweetshop, get an ice cream as well as her Dad’s things. Which is what he’d meant in giving her the money and an excuse to go out. Maybe some sweets as well…the proper kind that got weighed in scales and put in paper bags. Sherbet lemons, maybe pear drops, humbugs, pineapple chunks…Her mouth watered a little at the prospect and the sugar as well and the fact British sweets were so much better than American ones…

Stopping at the small hedgerow that bordered the front of the school, she looked at the buildings, set quite back from the road, separated not only by the low hedge and fence, but a wide expanse of lawn. The school flag was up, fluttering a little in the breeze. Jac smirked as she looked at it, wondering if that was the one they’d ‘kidnapped’ or if the school had a few spare ones. She was never sure what had actually happened to the flag, as she’d had a few other things to deal with…Shaking her head, she turned away and kept walking on, heading towards the main entrance.

Voices approaching from that way made her glance up and she winced as she recognized the two girls heading her way, as friends of Jessica, whom she still hadn’t seen. She hadn’t seen Jase either, which was downright odd…But these two, Bianca and Faye, were hardly her best friends, so she resolved herself to keep walking in the direction she was heading, even though that led out of the town. Wasn’t as if she couldn’t make a quick trip back, but there was no damn way she was turning around to avoid passing them.

They noticed her and exchanged glances, mutters and smirks. Alright, while that wasn’t below them, she wasn’t entirely sure as to what she’d done to provoke their reactions. It was almost as if she’d been left out of a joke.

“Oh, Jackal. Didn’t think we’d see you around here again,” Faye stopped on the pavement, giving her an ‘innocent’ smile.

Jac felt a twinge of anger at her old nickname, lovingly graced upon her way back in year seven. “Why not? Got as much right to be here as you lot.”

“Really? Oh so you do have rights. That’s nice,” Bianca tried not to explode from laughing. The girl believed she was rather funny, but in reality was rather tragic. No one really wanted to tell her she wasn’t funny, as her thinking she was funny was amusement enough.

“What the hell does that mean?” Jac bristled, though an uncomfortable notion was poking away at the back of her mind.

“Exactly what it sounds like, Jackal. God knows why you came back here, but next time there’s a break, can you stay there?”

Wow. This was something more than the usual digs over clothes or lack of interest in boys and makeup. That had actually stung a bit…

“Faye, what the hell are you talking about? I’m just walking down the bloody street!”

“Yes. Our street. Mutie.”

They pushed past her, laughing as if they’d made a wonderful joke, then turned back to look at her. “Seriously, stay in America. At least they have controls for you lot over there.”

The pair laughed again and carried on their walk into town. Jac blinked, slowly, feeling a little cold. She wanted to go scalp the pair of them, black their eyes, knock their bloody teeth out but…she couldn’t move. She was just in…shock? Paralysing anger? Both?

How…How the hell had they known she was a mutant? No one knew but her mother, father, Martin, Maxxie and Claire and…Jase. Who was shagging Jessica. Who was friends with Faye and Bianca. She felt suddenly, very sick, and very much wanting to get out of there. He wouldn’t have done that….would he? Who else could have let it slip? She didn’t even want to think about that.

Turning away from her spot, where she had been staring at the backs of the troublesome duo, she instead stared at the road that led out of Alford and blazed down at it. What with the now obvious state of things, it would hardly matter if anyone saw her or not.

[tears~fall~like~glass]

Ooooh... wunt. moar. nao.

Also, hee at the icon.

[Ult_Sm86]

I just... f*cking love the word "shag". I don't know why. Maybe because over here we just use it for a type of carpeting loosely affiliated with psychedelic drug users or 70's disco queens.

Regardless, excellent writing as always. Keep. It. Up.

[steyn]

always fun to read this fic

[littlebamf]

Seated on the garden wall, Jac morosely kicked against it with her heel, staring down at the pavement. Drifting through the open living room window, she could just hear her parents talking about her three hour disappearing act accompanied by the television set.

Well. They were never going to force her to wear a dress again, it seemed. Especially considering the state she came back with it in, but mainly as they put it down to one of the reasons she had run off in the first place. Considering the ticking off she’d gotten, she didn’t much fancy explaining that possibly the whole upper teen population of the area knew her little secret. And the lower teens as well, likely. She was shocked there hadn’t been some big thing on facebook, like a status war or some group or something.

Jac carried on thumping her heel against the wall, little pieces of stone coming away with each impact. She couldn’t believe this was happening…What the hell had happened anyway? Sure, those bitches earlier knew, but she didn’t really know how they knew. All she could so was –

“Hey, Jac…”

Jac swivelled her head as she heard the greeting and instantly made a face. “Jase. Long time no see.”

“Yeah…Feel sort of bad about that,” he gave her a nervous smile and rubbed the back of his neck. “So…What are you up to?”

“What does it fuckin’ look like?” Jac responded dryly, fixing him with a deep scowl. Jase backed away slightly, looking slightly confused.

“Alright…No need to bite my head off. Look, I’m sorry I haven’t been around-”

“-but you’ve been too busy shagging away at Jessica. You could have just said you were moping after your dipshit girlfriend.”

“Hey! What the hell do you have to talk about her like that for? She’s a sweet person. And fuck, she was away for two weeks so I haven’t been ‘too busy shagging away at her’ not that it’s any of your business you jealous little-”

“Jealous? JEALOUS?” Jac jumped off the wall, folding her arms across her chest. “Why would I be jealous of that fucking bimbo? Give me one good reason!”

“Well. She’s smart, pretty, sociable, popular…tall…And according to her mates, you always fancied me, so-”

Maxxie rounded the corner of Jac’s street just in time to see Jac tackling Jase over her garden wall, starting with a knee to the balls. Shit. That had to hurt. Rolling his eyes, he picked up his speed in heading over. When he’d left his house, he’d intended to go scrape Jac’s bottom lip off the floor and drag her over to his for some cider and xbox 360 times. He hadn’t expected to be scraping Jase off the floor…Though the reasoning behind his mission being his sister heard of Faye’s sister that she’d run into Jac…Well. Damn.

“Umm…guys? Okay fine, ignore me,” Maxxie shrugged and leant down, grabbing Jac around her waist and lifting her up, just as her parents appeared in the window. “Oh, hi Mr and Mrs F! No worries, I have it under control!” he walked backwards a few steps. “Now princess if I put you down you won’t wig out anymore, right?”

Trying to twist out of his arms, she swore loudly, then realising her parents were watching, feigned a laugh, giving them a sheepish smile. “It’s alright…just playing…”

Connie gave the three a look, especially as Jase was upside down in her flowerbed, but said nothing and went away from the window. David lingered a little longer. “Just don’t go and damage anything, alright?”

“We won’t! Promise!” Maxxie grinned endearingly. David gave the trio a very unconvinced look, shutting the window slightly before moving away back into the room to carry on watching television.

Jase scrambled up into a standing position, brushing dirt off his arms and giving Jac one hell of a dirty look. “Bloody nutcase. What the hell is your problem?”

“I don’t know, maybe it’s because you haven’t so much as sent me a message since I got home, you haven’t hardly been in touch since I went to school in America! Max, lemme go!” she snapped over her shoulder, squirming violently. Maxxie dropped her, a little reluctantly.

“Oh get over yourself! You think it’s that easy with what the heck you’ve been up to to carry on as if nothing happened? You’ve changed. Maybe Jessica was right about you…”

“Oh I bet she was!” Jac nearly made a lunge at him again, but Maxxie pulled her back. “Leave it, Jac. He’s not worth it.”

“You’re afraid of the truth, you just carry on hiding away, as if nothing happened but you can’t, you’re a mutant for fucks sake! You think you can keep that secret for the rests of your life? What about when you want to go professional with sports? They’ll test you and find out and it’ll be over!”

“It will be damn well over for me if you carry on screaming about it in the street!” Jac shot back, her cheeks red.

“I’m not the one screaming,” Jase shrugged but took a wise step back. “Look…I’m sorry. I just don’t think it’s good for you that you keep hiding it.”

“So you told Jessica so she could tell all her fucking friends!”

Maxxie took hold of her arm. “Jac…Just leave him. C’mon.”

“I didn’t mean to…Was drunk,” Jase looked incredibly guilty at the admission. “It was a party, people were asking where you’d gone…I just…Look. I’m sorry. But they’re right. You shouldn’t hide. It’ll make it harder for you.”

“Harder? You have no idea how hard it is anyway!” Jac clenched her fists, hard. “It’s really scary and so what if I have to go away to school? At least people there understand and wouldn’t backstab me like you! I thought we were friends!”

“I am! I just – I just…” he shook his head. “I’ve said what I had to say. Take it or leave it.”

“Take this you damn little cocksu-” Jac yanked out of Maxxie’s hold, swinging a punch at Jase. He stumbled back before Maxxie could get a hold of Jac again.

“Look…Jase? Piss off will you? There’s a good wanker.”

He gave them both a look, then sighed. “Fine. You know where to find me…”

“Like you’ve known where to find me these past weeks, prick,” Jac mumbled at his back, her lower lip wobbling. “Stuck up…as if I ever fancied him!”

Maxxie slid an arm around her shoulders. “Yeah…Bit full of himself that one. C’mon. Was coming over to ask if you wanted to come over and play some Halo or some Farcry and drink some cider. Or we could just drink…?” he moved his arm so it was more around her neck in a half hug.

Jac stared down at the pavement, blinking. “Can’t believe he told that lot…”

“Ah, go get your toothbrush and we’ll make a night of it. I’ll even buy you pizza.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

A few hours later, Jac was popped on Maxxie’s bed, poking at a slice of pizza, a controller balanced on her knee.

“Wow…He got to you, didn’t he?” Maxxie commented after a moment of watching her while his little man onscreen met an unfortunate death.

She nodded, her face dark. “I’m going to bloody kill him.”

“Heh. Well, they can put you away for that so I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.”

“I just can’t believe he thinks that way! He was always fine about my…stuff,” she picked a slice of pepperoni off her slice, rolling it up and chewing on it. “He even helped time me a couple of times.”

“I know. I think it’s just him with those tossers he’s started hanging out with. The His n Hers brigade. Swear he was coordinating with Jessica one day. The whole pack of ‘em do. It’s not only being round Jessica, but all the other ones, the other girls and their lads…”

“I know. Doesn’t justify it. He’s my mate, he should have been sticking up for me.”

“Yeah, he should,” Maxxie fiddled with the edge of the pizza box, passing Jac another can. Maybe if he gave her enough she’d sleep soon, because god knows he had to. The landing outside creaked a little.

“Maxxie, Jackie? You two still awake?” his mother called in.

“Yeah…Sorry, we wake you?”

“Nah. Bloody dog’s wanting to go out and piss. It’s the fucking medication it’s on, I swear. You two just go to bed when you want but don’t make any bloody noise and don’t stay on that box thing all night!”

“Okay, night mum!”

“Night Paula…” Jac called half heartedly. Maxxie’s mum was cool. She never made a comment, which, well, wasn’t really surprising considering. The landing creaked some more, punctuated with some Labrador yappy panting noises as the dog in question, Boris, half threw himself down the stairs.

Jac looked at the clock, noticing that it was much later than she thought. “Oh…shit. You want to sleep, yeah?” she winced at the digits spelling out two in the morning.

“Don’t worry, its fine,” Maxxie waved his hand, finishing his own can of cider off. “You carry on with the talking stuff, I’m not fussed.”

Opening the can, she swallowed a mouthful. “He’s a twat.”

“He is. Fancy him thinking you fancy him. It’s always been the other way around.”

Jac eyed him. “Whatever.”

“Oh, I know these things,” he nodded sagely. “Though, he never had a chance, hence he scarpered off after Jessica, as deep down he knew it would make you bloody mad considering you hate her so much. Truth.”

“If you say so…Not interested though.”

“I know. You’re never interested, well, apart from Danny that time, only really to prove you’re not a block of ice and cause he didn’t mind you were better at video games than him.”

“Oi! There was more-”

“There was more to it than that, I know I know, I’m just sparing your feelings,” Maxxie poked his tongue out at her. Jac rolled her eyes at him in return, chewing on her pizza slice.

“So, you feeling better now you’ve eaten, drank, killed pretend people and vented all at my expense?”

“Yeah, yeah I do. Not speaking to Jase again for a long, long bloody time.”

“I don’t blame you,” Maxxie nodded and stood up, turning the console and the television off. “Right, now I lied about sleeping. I’m tired so put your stuff down and budge over…” he pulled his shirt off, fiddling with the cord of his shorts.

Dumping her can on the windowsill, Jac pulled the curtains properly shut, finishing her pizza slice, discarding her controller.

“Least I don’t have to worry about your intentions, eh?” she cracked a grin and lay down, snuggling to get comfortable against the pillows on the double bed.

“Of course you don’t my dear, you don’t have a dick. Now, sleep well.”

“Sleep well yourself, you big gay.”

[steyn]

D'aww, and fuck I hate Jase so much right now.

[tears~fall~like~glass]

Seconding the d'awww. I'd wondered how the sleeping over was going to work out. >< And yeah, Jase reminds me of someone I know and hate, but I can't place who...

Good job, as always.